Mariah Carey, one of the most well-known songwriters, is being sued for copyright infringement by a country music artist for her song “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”

Andy Stone believes his 1989 song “All I Want For Christmas Is You” by Vince Vance & the Valiants is being infringed on and has filed a complaint against Mariah Carey and co-writer Walter Afansieff.

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Stone filed his complaint in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Even though the songs have the same title, there isn’t a trace of Carey’s melody or lyrics beyond the mention of the title, as per Attorney Pamela Koslyn from Los Angeles who specialises in music and intellectual property concerns.

Carey’s version of the song debuted in 1994, and it has since become a holiday staple on the radio, streaming services, and during the NBA’s annual Christmas Day slate of games.

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Stone believes his song received a lot of radio play over the 1993 holiday season. He is seeking $20 million in damages.

According to Stone, Carey and Afansieff “consciously engaged in a campaign to infringe” on his work’s copyright.

In response to the lawsuit, Koslyn stated – “Song titles aren’t entitled to copyright protection, that is why there are 177 words with the same title,” ‘My Baby’ is an even more popular title, with 4860 works registered with the Copyright Office. This excludes unregistered ‘common law’ works with the same title. It will be difficult for the country artist to back up his claims.” 

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Koslyn mentioned that she would have given a different answer if all of the lyrics were “significantly similar” to Carey’s version.

The Carey version of the song has over 1 billion streams on Spotify alone. Last year, it was the first single to reach no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart three times in a row.

On December 3, 2021, the Recording Industry Association of America certified “All I Want for Christmas is You” as a Diamond, making it the first holiday song to do so and Carey the second female artist to achieve this, following Taylor Swift.